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The Middle Ages started in the year 476 with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the hands of barbarian peoples, who with their weapons (medieval swords, axes, spears, helmets, shields and other medieval weapons) were very effective during a fight at that time. This new and uncertain period divided Europe into small kingdoms, ruled by feudal lords, who often had warlike confrontations.

Mostly used weapons were the sword and the shield, which were very heavy. The Knight protected his body with bronze or iron armor, formed by helmet, chest armor and leg armor.

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Author: Mantas

Any medieval warrior would have avoided confronting anyone who carried any of these rare, deadly and cruel weapons of the ancient world.

For centuries, men devised instruments to crush, torture and assassinate their opponents, long before the existence of modern weapons that eliminate people in a few shots and from a distance. The weapons of antiquity stood out for having methods which, undoubtedly, none of us would wish to experience. Take a look at some of these sinister models.

A catapult is a war siege machine used to throw projectiles at great distances, without the use of any explosive comparable on this point to other siege engines in use during Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Any castle siege or even battles in open fields would not go without a catapult.

The castle structure was well known in the Middle Ages, but its origin is older and has precedents in classical Greece. A mere wooden barrier was used as a defensive fence, but the evolution of weaponry and military techniques made this system useless; later on, the solidity of the stone constructions and the height of the walls was relied on.

Unlike the trebuchet, the ballista is a so-called “spring” gear. Its operation is based on various mechanisms using the action of two levers on torsion springs, consisting of several bundles of twisted fibers. Early versions threw heavy arrows or spherical projectiles, like stones of different sizes.

In the Europe of the Middle Ages, there was the paradox of universal tolerance on the one hand and conviction regarding prostitution on the other. Although technically a sin (because it revolves around the act of fornication), prostitution was recognized by the Church and other sectors as a ‘necessary evil’. It was accepted as the fact that young men sought sex regardless of their options, therefore prostitution served to protect respectable women from seduction and even rape. In 1358, the Great Council of Venice declared that prostitution is “absolutely indispensable for the world”. Even though it was accepted as a lesser evil, the Church did not hesitate to declare prostitution a “morally wrong practice”, even though St. Augustine proclaimed that “if prostitution of society is expelled, everything is disrupted by passions.”

Hastings, Bouvines, Agincourt – the Middle Ages seem to be replete with renowned battles; in fact, for a long time, the medieval war has been studied almost exclusively through the shocks recorded at the time. However, it is relatively rare to find battles in the full sense of the word: what predominates are mainly campaigns and sieges, since this is the type of actions that define the war in this period. The fact is that the number of skirmishes, singular battles, and major military clashes far exceeds that of events such as Battles of Hastings and Agincourt in the medieval world.

The Inquisition was a medieval ecclesiastical court whose purpose was to seek and prosecute heretics. Very hard in its procedures, the Inquisition was defended in the Middle Ages by appealing to biblical practices, which St. Augustine already interpreted as a support for the use of force against heretics.

The fall of the Roman Empire meant that many of its hygienic practices were soon lost. During the Middle Ages, most people did not have access to safe drinking water, a regular bathroom or a sewage system. Hunger and disease were very common.

The Black Death was a great epidemic that devastated almost the entire European continent between 1347 and 1351. Also called Bubonic Plague, by the characteristic ‘bubo’ which is nothing other than swollen lymph nodes. This pest belongs to rodents and is transferred from rat to rat through the fleas, and from these to humans through the bites.